My buddy has never fished the bay before, so I was hoping he would have some luck, unfortunately all he caught was a few perch.
We were out with the guys from G2 Angling, which is always a good time, even if the fish aren't biting.
The snow Saturday night made the conditons pretty messy out there lots of snow, slush and water.
We set up on the edge of a nice break but after a few hours of only a few small perch we moved a few hundred yards to try another spot and get out of some of the slush.
Once set up again we started marking fish on the Vex but no bites, I figured they were all perch so to check I downsized my presentation to a 1/8 oz Northland Fish Fry Minnow with a minnow head on the hook, which I used a few weeks ago on the bay and nailed the jumbo perch.
Instantly after downsizing I get a fish on!! Thinking it is a monster perch I end up icing 1.5 pound walleye for the fist eye of the day.
Back down my bait goes.... jig.....jig..... fish on...... shortly a nice 3+ pound eye joins his friend on the ice.
Throughout the day I mark a decent number of fish on the Vex most probably perch. I switched up my presentation to a small "white perch" jigging rap type bait with a minnowhead and instantly have a fish on but lose it, a few minutes later I land a nice sized silver bass.
I switch between my fish fry spoon and small jigging rap the rest of the day landing a few 10" perch and a few small ones. Mid afternoon I get a decent hit on my jigging rap but lose the fish about 5 feet rom the ice. I open the bail and watch my bait fall on the Vex and watch the fish head back to the bottom after the bait. My bait hits bottom .... I close the bail and set the hook.... this time another 3+ pound eye joins the other 2 on the ice.
Unfortunately the late afternoon bite was dead.
In the end I ended up with 3 walleye, 2 silver bass, 5 jumbo perch, a bunch of small perch and I lost a herring or whitefish at the hole.
A big thanks to fish-hawker hook&shoot who let me borrow his FL18 so my buddy could use my FL8. This was the first time I have used a Vex with the zoom feature for a whole day and the zoom is awesome for those bottom hugging Quinte eyes. Definitely upgrading my FL8 next year.
One last trip to Qunite planned for Feb 19th with 6 of my high school students, still looking for my first 10 pounder of 2011.
JimW
Good job ! Hope you catch a 10+ next time !
